Swastika: Good Luck Don't Worry Club USA X's 2 Update 1-23-19

TNTGross

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A few weeks ago, I was in downtown Jacksonville hunting a curbside next to a parking lot. I wasn't there but a minute and the first good signal I got was only an inch or two deep. At that shallow a depth, I figured it was a newish clad coin, but when I dug it out and wiped off the dirt, I saw that it was a large coin/token with a swastika on it.

My first thought was it was a German coin from WWII, but it had English on it. Then I was thinking it was some Neo-Nazi propaganda piece. I took it back to my truck and took a couple pics of it so that I could zoom in and get a better look at it.

When I zoomed in, I could see other little symbols mixed in with the swastika. A wishbone, four leaf clover, and a horseshoe and the words "Good Luck." My mind was blown.... It has a fifth symbol mixed in with them, I could not make that one out. Now I'm thinking to myself... What kind of mixed up $!!& is this??? On the reverse, it had a company logo.

When I got home, I cleaned it up a bit and got online to look it up. Come to find out, the true swastika symbol was a good luck symbol. Still is in some parts of the world. The Nazi party stole it in 1920 and rotated it 45 degrees and made it their state symbol in 1935.

The coin I found was from Albany Alabama. A city that became New Decatur in 1927. The company on it, Decoro, only existed from 1926 to 1936 before it went defunct. So my guess is, the coin is from 1926. The last year of Albany Alabama.

These promo coins were very common. Even the Boy Scouts had swastika coins back in the day. The Boy Scout Swastika Good Luck Club coins are very sought after, by the way...

UPDATE: So this morning, (1-23-19) I went to the same street, but four blocks down, and up a side street a few houses and found a 1933 Worlds Fair Good Luck Token with a Swastika on it. How crazy is that???
 

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How about the way people in the US used to salute the flag during the Pledge of Allegiance from the late 1890s until the early 1940s?

In some versions the hand was supposed to be sideways, but it was also commonly done palm down. It was dropped entirely when the Nazi party borrowed it.

Students_pledging_allegiance_to_the_American_flag_with_the_Bellamy_salute.jpg


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellamy_salute
 
Nice Good Luck token! I would love to dig one like that!
The "swastika" has been a symbol for several cultures, with differing meanings. The native American symbol like this is often called the "whirling logs" symbol. Multiple meanings in various N.A. cultures, I believe.
Nazis ruined all that. Didn't know they ruined an American flag salute too. :wow:
 
That's of course a great token, and a great recovery an story.

Isn't it funny as you mentioned you thought it would be vlad, how many of us may have passed it up after a long day of hunting?
 
Great, very interesting finds.

Those damn Nazis, they ruined the name Adolf too.
 
I know the swastika was used all over the world throughout history as a good luck symbol and for other reasons, and the nazi`s used it for thier own needs, but it still is very strange to see the words "good luck" under a swastika. :blink:

Nonetheless.... That is an awesome token. Nice find. :thumbsup:
 
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